the truth is always subversive

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All too often, the phrase "corporate free press" is something of an oxymoron. Whether to maximise sales, to attract advertisers, or simply to promote the interests of their wealthy owners, the mass media open strange, self-serving and grossly distorted windows onto the world.

This website is another window. Here you'll find documentaries, lectures and interviews following a different editorial line.

How to win a battle against terrorism and lose the war of ideas. Children shoot soldiers at point-blank range. Women plant bombs in cafes. Soon the entire Arab population builds to a mad fervor. Sound familiar? The French have a plan. It succeeds tactically, but fails strategically. To understand why, come to a rare showing of this film.

… which, strangely enough, brings me to Iraq.

Hidden Facts: a message from the Iraqi Resistance

Purporting to be the work of the Resistance group 1920 Revolution Brigades, this is an insightful and compelling video (16 mins) with surprisingly high production values. I can’t guarantee it’s real, but I can guarantee it’s worth watching.

2 Responses to “Voices of Resistance, in Algeria and Iraq”

I’d heard about “Battle of Algiers” for YEARS and finally, thanks to a little anarchist book shop that rented movies, was able to see it. I was stunned at the realism that Portecorvo was able to impart, a documentary-type feel that a film like “Syrianna” didn’t come close to. “Algiers” should be essential viewing for film students and also students of history who need to see the true face of imperialism…and those who struggle mightily to oppose it.

Dave On Firesaid

I really liked Syriana, actually, but I agree that it’s a very different film. It looks at how individuals get caught up and exploited in tangled plots, and while it’s polemic it’s also fairly disempowering. Algiers does have more of a documentary feel, but it also shows the power of a community in motion; for all the torture and the terrorism, I think it’s a broadly positive film. Essential viewing, I concur (and I’d be interested in what the Pentagon said they would have done differently).